Gordon Brown will create a powerful group of ministers and officials to lead the Government's response to the global financial crisis as part of a cabinet reshuffle to be announced today.

The news that Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is to quit the Cabinet will spark a fresh bout of feverish reshuffle speculation.

Doctors from outside Europe will no longer be able to work in Britain as salaried GPs, under an official plan published today.

The former welfare minister Frank Field sparked a new row over immigration as the Home Office dismissed proposals to slash the number of migrants coming to live in Britain.

An 18-month-old boy was left fighting for his life after his five-year-old sister shot him in the head with an air gun their father was using for target practice.

Gordon Brown is planning to reshuffle the Cabinet in the first week of September in an attempt to re-assert his authority over his divided government.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again – if I show signs of dementia, don't bother putting me in a care home, just hand me a plastic bag and I'll dispose of myself without further ado.

A large-scale expansion of Britain's immigration detention centres was announced by the Home Office yesterday.

Your partner in life is having an affair. Your children ignore you. The last time you went to a parents' evening, your son's teacher had difficulty remembering who he was. Your friends have discovered that misery can be catching and avoid your company. Your cat looks at you with undisguised contempt.

New immigration controls detailed today would have prevented 20,000 foreign workers taking jobs in Britain last year, the Home Office said.

Trade unions, religious leaders and MPs joined a growing coalition yesterday calling for illegal immigrants who have been living in Britain for a number of years and who can prove they have contributed to society to be allowed to stay.

Back in the spring of 1968, East African Asians were adjusting to the retreat of colonialism. We were, remember, the essential middle-class buffer between whites and blacks, set up to service the empire . East African political leaders were "blackenising" the civil service and other institutions. Asians, born and bred there, found themselves jobless and hopeless.